- By Surarika Das
- Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:17 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
- The accused planned the scam after watching similar web series.
- The four ran the fake call centre without any licence or official authorisation.
- The callers spoke to the victims and convinced them, saying their loan has been approved through a company called "City Credits", and demanded charges.
Four men have been arrested for operating a fake international call centre, duping foreign nationals by offering fake loan approvals and collecting money from them. The accused have been identified as Karan Lokwani (32) and Jonathon Das (32), Pankaj Jethwani (40) and Alerasul Saiyad (34), all residents of Vadodara. The accused planned the scam after watching similar web series.
Raid In Apartment
The Vadodara Local Crime Branch (LCB) Zone-2 unfolded the scam after they raided an apartment in the city's Akota area. The four ran the fake call centre without any licence or official authorisation.
During the raid, police seized seven mobile phones, eight laptops, a fibre Wi-Fi router, cash and other equipment used in the operation. Authorities said that assets and materials worth around Rs 35 lakh were recovered from the premises.
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How Did The Gang Dupe People?
The callers spoke to the victims and convinced them, saying their loan has been approved through a company called "City Credits", and demanded charges. The fraudsters also collected debit card details, including card numbers, expiry date and CVV codes. The accused charged the victims between 150 and 200 dollars.
DCP Manjita Vanjara claimed that one of the accused was a stock market expert and another worked in a call centre. The remaining two have extraordinary English-speaking skills. According to the Crime Branch, the accused obtained victims' details through the dark web and had been operating a fake call centre for the past two months.
The investigators revealed that the accused learned and trained themselves for the fraud after watching a web series depicting similar criminal operations. Authorities are now trying to determine how many people have been duped by the gang till now.